Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Monday said that Ukraine should cede to Russia the territory Moscow and the Donbas separatists controlled before invading to end the war and called for negotiations.
“Negotiations need to begin in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome. Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo ante,” Kissinger told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself,” he added.
Russia has controlled the Crimean peninsula since 2014, but Ukraine still claims the territory, and Ukrainian officials have said they won’t give up Crimea to end the war. Before the invasion, separatists controlled a good portion of the eastern Donbas region and were seeking autonomy through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which France and Germany brokered.
Under the Minsk agreements, the Donbas would be autonomous but would still remain part of Ukraine. But Kyiv refused to implement the accords since they were finalized in 2015. Now, as the war drags on, Russia is slowly gaining more territory in the Donbas and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.
Kissinger said Ukraine should be a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Europe. “Ukraine should’ve been a bridge between Europe and Russia, but now, as the relationships are reshaped, we may enter a space where the dividing line is redrawn and Russia is entirely isolated,” he said.
While many observers were surprised by Kissinger’s view due to his infamous role in leading the secret US bombing of Cambodia as President Nixon’s national security advisor, Kissinger has been promoting this view of Ukraine for years. In 2014, shortly after the US-backed coup in Kyiv, he wrote: “Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other — it should function as a bridge between them.”
Kissinger’s comments in Davos angered some Ukrainian officials. Addressing what he called talk on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine “does not trade its sovereignty for someone to fill their wallet. The shortest way to end the war – weapons, money, embargo.”
A view similar to Kissinger’s was also expressed by the editorial board of The New York Times in an article published on May 19. The board wrote: “A decisive military victory for Ukraine over Russia, in which Ukraine regains all the territory Russia has seized since 2014, is not a realistic goal. … Russia remains too strong.”
The leaders of France, Germany, and Italy have been calling for a negotiated solution to end the war, while the US, Britain, Poland, and the Baltic states want to see Russia defeated. While there appears to be more people pushing for peace talks than before, President Biden just signed off on a new $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, signaling that Washington is in it for the long haul.
Henry, your ideas are too old-school for the present moment. Get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand.
Meanwhile,Ukraine and its people are being destroyed.
Jake,
Ukrainians already voted with their feet since the illegal Putsch in 2014, 2/3s of working age Ukrainians fled the brutal Kiev regime. Ukrainians have wanted neutrality and implementation of UNSC 2202 for ages. They voted 73% for neutrality and respect for minority rights in 2019.
The only people who are destroying Ukraine are in washington
It might be what happens, but really isn’t this up to the Ukrainians? I think it is important that the Russians learn that rearranging borders by force is a bad move. I grant that talk of regime change in Moscow is not helpful, talk of bleeding the Russians ( form high American officials) is not helpful.
What’s happening in Ukraine has very little to do with the Ukrainians or what they want. This is a royal pissing match between arrogant powers, using Ukraine to serve themselves.
If aggressors must be taught a lesson until they can no longer attack, I guess we all want the US economy to collapse asap.
The Spanish Civil War was up to Spain in the same way, with a heavy influence from Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin.
Very Difficult. Little Hitler wants to annex all of Ukraine.
Nah, you would’ve seen a different approach unless you mean the US.
isn’t the first rule of talking about stuff not to listen to that mass murderer clown who should be rotting in a prison cell and not eating his heart medication and tiny sandwiches while hobnobbing with people who have more money than god?
I feel ya. That’s why it’s news though, even that bloodthirsty fool is calling for being realistic about the need for peace.
The Ukraine translates as “borderlands” for a reason. This was never an independent state to begin with and naturally it’s now up for grabs. Hungary is making claims to the predominantly ethnic Hungarian part and Poland lay claims on the backward Nazi infested Lvov and it’s surroundings.
Russia is totally ok with that since the deep historical hatred and animosity between ukie Nazi’s and Poles will keep the Poles busy for decades to come, fresh from defeat (again) on the eastern front, Ukie Nazi’s from all over will rush to defend the rotten core of Banderastan. It might look all rosy now but wait til it actually happens. US has lost it’s war against Russia and when the last locked-up-in-cauldrons Nazi’s and the ukie army they command in Donbass is driven out or eliminated shortly, Russia can do whatever they need to do with the rest. The ethnic Russians down south want Russia to stay and stay they will but the US can be expected to make a last rush with whatever ukies they can muster to keep the (also ethnically Russian) port city of Odessa in order to get the grain and wheat harvest Kiev still controls (the main part of the rich farmlands is in the south) out on the market and in order for Kiev not to be completely landlocked. Russia won’t allow that to happen and that’s why the English lost spectacularly when they attempted to take snake Island which controls the inlet a few weeks ago.
An, unknown amount of English SAS agents, 60+ ukie troops and marines, 10 helicopters as well as fighter jets, drones and a boat lost on that rock and now it seems the English are planning for a second attempt….
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would agree with Kissinger, but here we are. Interesting times. I still think he is a war criminal, but he is absolutely right about this war.
History shows that in war someone has to lose: everyone convinces themselves they will win. Even, it seems, in a conflict that everyone will lose – nuclear war.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
Like Kissinger or hate him; he’s right on this. Although, I don’t think the “status quo ante” is really on the table anymore; I don’t think Russia will give up what it has won (the expanded Crimea, including Kherson, the land bridge to Donbas, full control of the Azov coast, and the entire Donbas). But even at that, Ukraine will have gotten off relatively lightly, IF they agree to negotiations now, while they still have a semblance of their country remaining.
The Ukrainian people should be deciding this, NOT a hard line autocrat and a pack of foreign neocon jackals encouraging him to fight to the last Ukrainian. The Ukrainian army, no matter how much second hand junk they get “donated” to them, will NOT be able to displace an entrenched Russian army from the territory they now control; nor will the Russians wait for them to “train” and “mobilize”; instead, the Russians will continue to target rail bridges, airports, military infrastucture, and transportation nodes in order to disrupt/destroy the influx of “foreign aid”, which needs to travel over 1000 km through Ukraine before it gets to the Donbas front. The US, UK, and Poland can “cheer” and “encourage” all they want, but it won’t change the facts on the ground. This war is just about over; Make the Best Deal you can!!
He meant to say:
Israel Should Cede Territory to Palestinians to Achieve Peace…!
I love it. It’s the Kabul-moment that’s drawing close for the regime in Kyiv. The Americans will cut their losses and run to leave Ukrainians in the lurch. Kissinger wants this to happen in the next two month so the US can extricate itself from the quagmire it has created in time for the mid-term election in November.
It will be hard for Ukrainian nationalists to abandon their racist dream of an ethnic Ukrainian state. It’ll be harder still to live with the destruction and economic devastation left in the wake of the war. Will they sell their body organs to survive like the Afghans? Or will they let their young girls go to Europe as sex slaves like they have done for so many years?
If Ukrainians were to wake from the ultra-nationalist nightmare, perhaps they come to realize who their real friends are. Perhaps Putin will provide them the opportunity to have a real revolution for once to remove the oligarchs that are robbing the country from the seat of power.
Anyways, for the Americans, it’s mission accomplished. They have divided Russia and Europe and imposed sanctions that will cripple Europe.
In liberated town of Swetlodarsk happy Ukrainian locals are interviewed in a impromtu video. You don’t need to understand the language to get the picture. They were liberated by LPR forces.
https://readovka.news/news/98242
“Kabul (& Libya)” 2.0. Yes, Ukraine is now a ward of Washington. All those types enjoying their normal cafe life in Kiev for the cameras of our MSM are doing it on the dole. So we may soon see how unstinting Lindsey & The Big Guy, BoJo, Poland, … prove themselves in Zelinski’s post-war travail? …another Kabul? … or Tel Aviv?
Next up we’ll get the “we broke it so we have to pay for it” bs. ..
The people that wreck nation after nation NEVER pay for the destruction. We pay. Which makes US stupid.
Even old war criminals are right sometimes.
Kissinger authorized the bombing of Cambodia because it is a tiny powerless non-Western nation that is a neighbor of Vietnam with whom we were at war and supported Pakistan in the Bangladesh War which persecuted the people in East Pakistan(now Bangladesh). He believes in treading carefully in the Ukraine War because Russia is far more powerful than Cambodia, India or Bangladesh.
If he comments on the tension between the US & China, he will also say Biden should watch his step.
I have to say when I wonder to myself,”what is the morally correct thing to do” Henry Kissinger’s name doesn’t come to mind.
Because of the ***Western***propaganda tsunami most people are alienated from the facts, which is to say, from reality. They are not to blame, of course, they swim in a sea of lies. This discussion reflects the consequent confusion.
It reminds me of the Biblical story of “The Confusion of Tongues”:
This may help clear things up:
http://thesaker.is/nato-vs-russia-what-happens-next/
Good luck.
It isn’t often mentioned, but very significant. In 1991, Crimea was an autonomous Republic of the Soviet Union which, following a referendum, declared its independence in the same year as Ukraine. They were two separate countries. Despite that, Ukraine arbitrarily abolished the office of the President of Crimea as well as Crimea’s Constitution in March 1995.
Thanks, I did not know that, will research.
The Crimea was added to Russia by Czarist armies. When Ukraine was made an SSR it was “given” to Ukraine because that seemed to be geographically and governmental rational but had nothing to do with reality. When the Black Sea was a Stalin-lake it did not matter. When NATO still ended at Germany’s border it hardly mattered. Then that sea became an almost NATO sea: Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey. With a friendly, let alone NATO Ukraine the Black Sea would be overwhelmingly controlled by NATO. That was the issue in 2014 when Putin took the Crimea. It still is for Russia.
Khrushchev ceded The Crimea to Ukraine in 1953, promptly regretted it but saw no harm.
Thank for pointing this out. And even before that , Ukraine acrually became independent twice. Under Soviet Constitution back in 1990 it acquirec undependence in monetary affairs, military and isduing passports. It could not however joun any blocks and not develop, lurchase or receive any atomic weapons on its terrirory. In 1991, suddenly under the influence of pro-western “dissidents” from Lvov, actually pro-Nazi elements given a new life by the West by promotion to “dissidents””. In one night in August they drafted new independence declaration, MINUS the obligation to not own nuclear weapons or join military alliances.
Rada was forced to vote under the “promise” that rge West would treat Ukraine as a pariah state, unless those provisions are removed. There was a referendum organized months later. It was not convincing — Crimea supposedly voted for it , even though it never recognized Ukraine’s rights to Crimea.
What would a “defeated” Russia look like?…
A 40 Billion Dollar ‘Aid’ package for Ukraine? What constitutes the definition of ‘aide’? (It sounds like a little more than just biscuits and some sausages…)
It seems to me that for 40 Billion dollars, we should be able to buy the Ukraine and have it completely redecorated…
Far be it for me to agree with Kissinger (on anything) but he does make a couple of solid points….
(Isn’t Kissinger dead already? Are they channeling him?….)
He just looks dead.
He is almost there. Mother nature is in charge.
Brain is, the rest of the body hasn’t realized it yet.
Kissinger only voiced common sense. Credit where credit is due. Even Trump and Biden sometimes tell the truth.
Biden telling the truth are called “gaffes”.
Maybe it sounds better, after all he is an older man but Trump is elderly also.
Yes, but Trump can remember 5 words in a row. Just a particular 5, but 5 nonetheless. That’s our standard now.
Somewhere a painting of him is aging.
It is unatural that he is till with us but he does make a valid point.
Dorian Kissinger?
He’s waaay past his expiration date, Donna
“A new blindness virus? 🇺🇦 does not trade its sovereignty for someone to fill their wallet. The shortest way to end the war – weapons, money, embargo.”
What does Podolyak think that 40 billion dollars is, but someone filling their wallet? The great bulk of that money will never leave the USA. And even the much reduced amount that actually goes to Ukraine, rather than to various US agencies, the US military, US consultants, trainers and so on, is really almost all only “credits.” Credits for what? To buy more US military crap, at fake, overpriced values, and sent to the Ukraine via expensive, gold plated US-flagged transport. Everyone west of Russia who is any position to do so is already busy “filling their wallet” with “aid to Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, Kissinger, the Pentagon, the Times, Italy, France and Germany are finally facing reality. Ukraine is losing, and will only lose more the longer the war lasts. Right now, Ukraine could probably still get a pretty good deal. It is obviously not going to get back much, if any, of the ground taken by Russia and the mini Republics since Feb 24, never mind any of the Crimea or the land already held by the mini Republics since 2014. But it could retain its sovereignty, and hold on to its Black Sea port of Odessa, as well as Kiev and maybe even Kharkov. But if Zelensky, backed by the deluded racist maximalists in his own country, as well as the deluded war mongering lunatics in Washington (and London and Warsaw), balks, well then, Ukraine will probably be chewed up little by little, piece by piece. And, once taken, at high cost in blood and money, by Russia, territory will be very hard to get back at the negotiating table.
Kissinger does have some experience he grew over time after Vietnam, Podolyak should have learned something in the last few months, it just does not look like it, unless he still needs some more silver to fill his pockets.
Is Ukraine viable without the DonBas, Mariupol, Crimea, Kherson, …?
I think as long as it still has Odessa and Kiev it is viable.
Odessa will be off the negotiations table in a few months. Ukraine will then return to the borders it had in 1919. The Ukrainian oligarchs will be richer and live elsewhere. The later is the only upside for the Ukrainians.
The US oligarchs will be richer and we will still be stuck with them here. There is no upside for the American people in this war. None at all.
Not viable, buyable.
This is what Biden and Blinken could have and should have done in December and January.
Now it is too late. Russia won’t settle for giving up what it has taken after defiance and forced conflict.
The US and Ukraine are looking at serious defeat, and that is the normal expected price for such foolish bluster, bluff, and blundering.
Russia and the Donbass resistance have freed Podasna in Donbass, where the Zelensky regime’s invasion force collapsed. The regime’s forces are now detonating bridges as revenge, like the Borova river bridge between Rubizhne and Severodonetsk. Everything north of the bridge has already been liberated.
Looks like Zelensky’s dream about invading the free part of Donbass won’t happen this year. Too bad, Zelensky. With the collapse of the massed invasion force, all of Donbass will be free, connecting by land to Crimea, and Russia’s goals will have been achieved.
“No no, Russia wanted to take all of Ukraine!” we hear. Russia is a democracy, why would they want to have brainwashed, anti-Russian Ukrainians voting in the elections? They have now freed the Russian-built part they can keep, including coal, coastline, land bridge, and some of the world’s most fertile soil. The people of Donbass no longer have to live with 20 shellings a day from the Azov Battalion, which accelerated to more than 1,000 per day in February in preparation for their planned invasion. Imagine being free from the daily shellings and snipers.
I am marketing a new line of toilet paper, it is blue and yellow 🇺🇦.
Perhaps even war criminals can be rehabilitated.
Too bad it took Kissinger so long to ( vaguely) come to his senses.
Henry Kissinger Says Ukraine Is Toast Thanks To The Americans